From Tatooine to Jakku and back again

Image: Disney

Let’s break down each of the four main events of the ride as they occur. The opening sequence has two distinct variations but a total of three possible experiences. In the first version, a seeker droid latches onto the windshield of the StarSpeeder 1000 and identifies the Rebel spy before the ship flees the spaceport alongside Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon. In the second version of the opening sequence, Darth Vader locks the StarSpeeder 1000 in a Force grip as he tries to locate the stowaway aboard the vessel. The third version slightly modifies the second opening sequence: Boba Fett has now joined Darth Vader’s posse.

Once the StarSpeeder 1000 makes its first successful jump to lightspeed (thanks, R2-D2), C-3PO and his passengers find themselves en route to their primary destination, the place where they end up spending just under a full minute of their four-minute, thirty-second adventure. Riders experience one of four ports of call here: Tatooine, Hoth, Kashyyyk or Jakku. These sequences do not have any noticeable major or minor variations, as far as we’ve been able to tell, though it was rumored that Tatooine, Hoth and Kashyyyk had all received slight tweaks during Star Tours’ modest upgrade in 2015.

Image: Disney

After the ship manages to win the Boonta Eve Classic Podrace, slip under the durasteel feet of AT-ATs, dodge vine-swinging Wookiees or evade the First Order, a special holographic message arrives from one of several Rebel allies: Leia Organa, Admiral Ackbar, Yoda or BB-8. There are no documented variations on these characters’ messages, save for the gender of the Rebel spy to whom the message is directed.

C-3PO and R2-D2 engineer another jump to lightspeed and riders are thrust toward their final destination. This leg of the trip comprises roughly a minute and a half of the ride and, like the opening sequence, offers its riders quite a bit of variety, with stops in Geonosis, Coruscant or Naboo. While the speeder only takes its guests to one of three different destinations, there are a total of seven possible experiences here. First up: Geonosis, where the StarSpeeder is confronted by the cocksure Boba Fett aboard Slave I and is forced to dodge Darth Vader and a fleet of TIE fighters through the unfinished hull of the first Death Star.

Others will be brought to a screeching halt above Coruscant, where R2-D2 confidently leads the speeder through traffic (going the wrong way, as C-3PO all-too-eagerly points out), then evades a collision with a fuel tanker before getting lowered into a hangar by a traffic control droid. Alternatively, some riders will find their journey ends when they are greeted in the hangar by Chewbacca, who waves a warm welcome from the cockpit of the Falcon.

The most common ending take place on Naboo, where several slightly different experiences await passengers after they crash into the planet’s watery surface. After upsetting a familiar-looking Gungan (either by flying just over his head or ramming into him at full-speed) and dodging the bite of carnivorous sea creatures, the trip ends in a repair hangar. In one ending, the tail of a Naboo starfighter skewers the windshield and stuns the pit droid. In another, the StarSpeeder only breaks off the tail of the starfighter, inspiring the pit droid to splash a bucket of yellow paint onto the windshield.

Image: Disney

Considering all possible variations, from the way Boba Fett swaggers into the hangar to Jar-Jar Binks body-slamming the speeder, that brings us to 336 potential flights (3 opening sequences x 4 primary destinations x 4 holograms x 7 ending destinations). Again, this doesn’t include the brand-new addition of the Kylo Ren opening sequence, Maz Kanata and Poe Dameron holograms or the Crait/Batuu ending. However, it’s worth noting that the most important elements in any Star Tours mission are the primary and ending destinations, as they determine where the StarSpeeder 1000 travels within the Star Wars universe. So, while there are technically 336 possibilities at each rider’s fingertips, only 12 combinations of primary/ending destinations exist: Hoth/Coruscant, Hoth/Geonosis, Hoth/Naboo, Jakku/Coruscant, Jakku/Geonosis, Jakku/Naboo, Kashyyyk/Coruscant, Kashyyyk/Geonosis, Kashyyyk/Naboo, Tatooine/Coruscant, Tatooine/Geonosis and Tatooine/Naboo.

Will Star Tours return to its choose-your-own-adventure format?

Image: Disney

If you’re secretly hoping Star Tours will return to the random missions of yesteryear (well, yesterweek), you might be left hanging for a while. As we’ve mentioned several times over the last week, the StarSpeeder 1000 appears to have its coordinates fixed on Jakku and Crait/Batuu for the time being. What’s more, WDW News Today reports that the new additions may not be assimilated into the ride’s randomized format the way that BB-8 and Jakku were back in 2015. Instead, Star Tours could split into two separate rides, one that focuses on Episodes I-VI and another that centers on Episodes VII-IX.

Should Disney go down this route, there’s no question that it would require some serious content creation — and soon. Sure, they could wait to split up the attraction until they have more material to use from Episode IX, but that likely wouldn’t become a possibility until autumn 2019. (Of course, if they’re planning to reposition Star Tours within Star Wars Land, which is scheduled to open earlier that year, then this makes total sense.) Should they make the change within the next 6-12 months, as WDWNT hinted, riders would get to travel to some combination of six planets (Tatooine, Hoth, Kashyyyk, Geonosis, Coruscant and Naboo) on the “old” version of Star Tours, while the “new” version would be forced to play the same Jakku/Crait/Batuu combo on repeat. Taking all possible opening sequences, primary destinations, holograms and ending sequences into account, that means riders could enjoy up to 189 variations on one version of the ride and just six variations on the other.